When factory workers treat industrial robots as co-workers - even attributing certain human qualities to them - productivity and well-being improves, according to new research out of the Alberta School of Business.
"The more the workers found ways to connect to these machines, even emotionally, and figure out their nuances, the better they were able to keep the line running, and the happier they were on the line," says Dr. Trish Reay, who collaborated on the study with researchers in Europe.
It's somewhat like bonding with a new colleague, says Reay, an expert in organizational and institutional change.
Entitled "Matilda is Lazy Today: How Mind Perceptions Trigger Relational Job Crafting With Industrial Robots," the study followed workers in European manufacturing settings for four years. Researchers interviewed robot operators and their managers, as well as experts on the introduction of robotics to manufacturing.
The results showed that anthropomorphic perceptions of the robots by workers - including attributions of agency, human-like feelings and experience - helped improve operations on the production line overall.
The increasing integration of industrial robots into workspaces around the world not only leads to significant changes in work design, "but also prompts workers to reframe how they think about their work and adapt to working with technology."
The robots in her study were not driven by artificial intelligence, a feature that would be more likely to elicit attributions of human qualities, she says. Instead, the machines perform specialized tasks - such as heavy lifting and materials alignment in a setting such as a furniture factory - with no resemblance to humans at all.
"Industrial robots - despite lacking anthropomorphic design features - are treated as more than mere tools: workers ascribe teammate-like qualities to them," write the authors of the study. "This highlights an important and underexplored phenomenon: relationality with technology can emerge even without intentional design."
Productive relationships with robots are built up over time, says Reay. At first, the workers might name the machines "Bobby" or "Matilda" to tell them apart and recognize which ones might require special care.
